Online Learning Insights from COD Online

Category Archives: Quick Tips

If you have to do a lot of reading for your courses, doing even more reading might not be at the top of your list of ways to spend your free time, but research suggests that maybe it should be. There are loads of benefits to reading just for the fun of it, including making yourself a better student, more adept writer, and getting your brain in shape. Sound too good to be true? Read on to learn about why reading is one of the best ways to relax, offering you the chance for fun and some serious brain benefits at the same time.

All students want to do well in their classes, but not everyone knows how to break bad habits or ensure that they’re starting out and staying on the path to success. There’s no better time than the new year to start working towards positive changes by making and sticking resolutions that can make you the top-notch student you’ve always known you could be.

Here are some real, concrete resolutions that you can make this year that will improve your success as a student and help you stay on track through January and beyond.

Trying to come up with a great idea for your final paper or presentation? Why not do a little brainstorming with the help of some high-tech tools? There are some really great sites and apps out there that can help you bring together your ideas, work with others, organize your research, and turn a tiny idea into a fully-fleshed out final product.

Here are a few to consider as you’re heading into the home stretch of your semester. Continue reading →

When you’re taking an online course, technology is your lifeline. You can’t get onto your courses, complete assignments, or talk with your classmates without an Internet connection and a working device. So what do you do when your tech fails you?

Here’s a quick guide to handling any kind of tech issue without losing your cool, ensuring you stay on track with your course no matter what life throws your way.

You don’t have to be a busy professional to take advantage of the advice productivity gurus have to offer. Often, their advice can just as easily be applied to college studies, allowing students to improve their time management skills, get organized, and even get more out of class. Even better, mastering some of these habits now will help you out in the working world later on.

Here are a few great ideas from the experts for boosting your productivity as a student.

While a college degree is an excellent tool to help you get the job of your dreams, showcasing your expertise in the “hard” skills, like mathematics, writing, and science, it’s not all you need. Employers also want employees who are responsible, creative, good at communicating, and work well on a team. These abilities, referred to as soft skills, can be what separates the good employees from great ones, making them highly desirable to employers and, in turn, extremely important for job seekers.

In fact, CareerBuilder reports that 77% of employers rank soft skills as just as important in hiring as hard skills and 16% say they are actually more important. Essentially, it’s not just your proficiency in your subject area that will matter—you’ll need the right attitude and interpersonal aptitudes, too.

Luckily, your college courses, even those online, provide plenty of opportunities for you to build these skills before graduation. Here, you’ll learn about some of the most in-demand soft skills and find tips and ideas on how you can turn your online education into a soft skills training ground.

While flashcards and notes can be really great study tools, they’re actually not the most important resource in your academic toolbelt when it comes to getting the maximum return on investment for your study time. Research shows that in many cases, sleep, or lack thereof, can have a bigger impact on your academic success than extra hours spent studying.

Don’t get too excited though– you can’t just replace your study sessions with sleep and expect to earn straight A’s—you still have to study. But you may not realize just how much being well rested matters when it comes time to recall the information you covered while studying or listening to a lecture. Read on to learn why sleep is such an important part of learning new information and why you shouldn’t skimp on it if you want to do well in your courses.

COD gives online students access to an amazing amount of digital resources, but if you’re looking for something more, the Internet will not disappoint. There are dozens of amazing digital archives out there that you can browse, download from, and share, many from highly respected institutions with access to some of the rarest, best, and most extensive collections anywhere in the world.

Here are a few you can’t miss if you’re looking to find awe-inspiring historical photos, documents, books, and maps to flesh out your research or just want to spend an afternoon browsing through cool historical stuff.

While COD offers many online courses to help you learn to code (check out our online course catalog), sometimes you just want a little outside practice or the flexibility to tackle learning a difficult new skill on your own time. That’s where the plethora of free educational programming resources on the web can be incredibly useful.

Whether you’re looking for a full course or just some short tutorials, there are plenty of resources to choose from, available for nearly every programming language, level of ability, and type of media. Here are a few of the most tried and true coding resources out there to help you learn valuable skills like developing a website or an app or maintaining a database.

Summer’s here! Time to hit the beach, take a vacation, and set aside the books until the fall, right? Well, maybe not. While you should definitely have fun over your summer vacation, failing to give your brain a workout for months on end will mean that you’ll be coming back in the fall with an out-of-shape brain that will have to work a lot harder to learn new material (think the mental equivalent of huffing and puffing while climbing stairs). In fact, you may have to spend significant time relearning things you already covered last year. No one wants that. So how can you prevent summer brain drain?

Not to worry; you don’t have to stay a full-time student to keep your brain in shape over break. There are lots of free, easy, and even really fun ways to get your brain up and active.